by Starla Night
This was the reason she didn't think he was serious. "When I said 'no' to considering you as a marriage candidate, I was thinking of you as a dragon male. You are not one."
"You noticed."
"Yes. Many times." She reached out, took his hand, and placed his palm in the center of her chest. "I will now consider you as a candidate for marriage as a human male. Prove your interest."
* * *
Darcy's heart almost fell out of his chest.
Amber gazed up at him with those sweet, honest, trusting eyes. Her cheeks stained with blush and her soft chest rose and fell under his palm.
The shock of the disappointment melted away with her heat.
He bent to her level, in her personal space, his lips inches from hers. "You want proof?"
Her breath hitched. She nodded.
He crossed the last inches and touched her lips.
Her lips were soft, warm, and feminine. Her usual fragrance, like clean sheets and crushed lilacs, mixed with the crinkly smoke of her dual nature. Beneath, the night flavors of roasted peanuts and tasty IPA filled him with heat. He touched her lips again, and again, imprinting her with his arousal.
No reaction.
He pulled back.
Her lashes spread, her eyes open. Like if she closed her eyes, she'd miss the joke. She was still so terrified that he was teasing her.
That was it.
Prove yourself.
He united their lips a second time and pressed in, centering her softness on him, fitting her with one hand around the small of her back.
She accepted him but didn't act. She froze.
In shock? Fear? ... Maybe bliss?
He nibbled her mouth, teasing sweetness from her. She parted, allowing him in, and he took his care tasting her. Slipping his tongue along her welcoming seam, he sucked her lips.
She followed his head as he turned, chasing his mouth. He found her tongue, and they tangled, hot and hungry.
A helpless moan emerged from her lips as she surrendered to his arms. Her curves pressed against him as she worked for her taste.
Her hand fisted his shirt. Wildness flashed in her eyes.
His cock bobbed in the tight confines of his trousers, ready to lay her across the table and slide deep into her needy wetness, stroking her to a boundary-shattering orgasm and changing everything between them forever.
She yanked back. Gasping, she released his shirt and smoothed the collar. "I'm sorry."
"Hmm?" He looked down at the starburst of claw marks that had pierced his French linen. "Ah."
"I, uh..." Her eyes focused on his lips. She licked hers. "I lost control."
Exaltation pumped in his blood. He couldn't stop the grin from curving his lips. "I take it you're satisfied."
Her gaze darted to his eyes. "Not yet."
He stepped forward and pressed her into the table. "I can fix that."
She licked her lips. "Um..."
"But I meant that I proved my interest." He ground his cock into her hip. "I am very interested in you, Amber."
She gripped his buttocks to seat his cock against her cleft. "Why didn't you do this at the beginning? I would have understood your intention on the first day if you'd come to me and taken off your pants."
He grinned. "Something something 'trying to be classy.' Clearly, I made a mistake. I'm too human for my own good."
"Yes. Far too ... Oh. You're trying to woo me as a human." She nodded, considering him, and then pushed him onto his heels. "I have to go home now."
Disappointment dipped. "Already?"
"It's late and Mal wants a report. What's the next step when humans begin a relationship?"
"Depends on the humans. But our top priority should be spending time together."
She frowned.
Darcy braced for a fight. He'd gotten Amber this far. She considered him a marriage candidate. He could get her to "I do" even if it took another five years.
But instead of fighting, she said logically, "You don't come to our offices anymore. How can we spend more time together?"
"You could come here."
"You would want that?"
"Very much. Come tomorrow."
"Okay."
So easy? He walked her to the door and gave her the lingerie box. "I'll prove my feelings again. More."
She closed her hands over the box. "What's this?"
"My gift. Wear it for me."
She made a non-committal hum. "Dragons exchange gifts."
"So do humans." He leaned forward. "Fly home safe."
Her brows dipped in confusion. "I always fly home safe."
"Good." He dropped a farewell kiss on her damp, plump mouth.
Another hot blush crept up her cheeks. She hugged his lingerie box to her chest. "Don't tease."
"I'm not teasing." He leaned against the door frame. "When you're looking so cute like this, I want to cover you in kisses. It takes all my will to resist."
"Oh. Sorry." She lifted in the air. "Is that better?"
He made a show of crossing his arms over his chest. "Come back tomorrow."
"I will." She kept her gaze on him as she flew up until she disappeared into the night.
He locked his shop with shaking hands.
This changed everything.
He hoped.
Chapter Six
Amber stared at the orange "sunrise" lingerie on her bed.
Morning sun peeked through the windows and cast fingerlings of light on the warm wood floors. She'd wasted too much time on the simple daily task of dressing.
She brushed the soft satin. Little shivers ran down her back.
Like Darcy's kiss, unexpected and filled with twisting heat and desire. He had shut down every other thought. His interest had come out of nowhere. How could she believe him?
A sinking feeling tugged at her heart, anchoring her to reality.
She couldn't wear the lingerie. The fiery orange was beautiful but too bold.
Amber had spent her childhood in pampered luxury. The day Alex had been granted a visit to their estate and pointed out her smug, idle wastefulness was the day everything changed.
"I hope you enjoyed your visit," she'd called out to him while sunning herself on the upper parapet. "After you go to that backwater planet, you'll forget what luxury is. Of course, you don't know from how you live now. I pity my sad, lonely, low caste brothers. I really do."
He'd eyed her with his exotic two-color gaze, and she'd had the unsettled hint he pitied her, too. "Thank you, Amber. It means a lot to receive pity from a dragon like you."
"A dragon like me?" She'd risen to her full height and spread her wings, blocking out the distant red sun. "What do you mean a dragon like me?"
He'd lowered himself and backed away from the castle. "A dragon of your singular accomplishment."
"Singular accomplishment?"
"You are alone in the estate, the solitary heir, the single future matriarch. How lonely it must be to wear that isolated mantle, knowing that no one will ever reach your pedestal. Save your pity, Amber. And please excuse me. I am needed; my lowly brothers are relying upon me."
She hadn't known what to say.
Alex had eyed her from beneath his brow ridges as though gauging whether he'd insulted her cleverly enough, and then he'd bowed with another flourish, and left.
In the following months, his barbed compliments had returned to her again and again. They echoed off her thoughts in the empty halls. When she ate her meals. Lounging on the parapet, alone.
Just like her mother had passed most of her life in this castle, alone.
Amber's future stretched out, alone.
A slow-burning fire of determination had kindled in her chest. She would not stay alone. She would prove herself useful, make her brothers rely upon her like they relied upon Alex, and never be alone again.
So, Amber had researched their preparations, made her own, and then presented herself. If Alex had been surprised to see her, he'd hid it well. The oth
ers had been cautious and held her at a distance; Mal excepted, of course.
Their greatest concern was her taking over the company and enslaving them. Amber had been raised to expect that role, but she'd never been asked if she wanted it.
On Earth, she didn't have to lead. She didn't have to cause pain just to be seen, and she didn't have to accept fear instead of respect. Humans and dragons listened to her because they valued her. Amber could just be.
It was so freeing.
And the company had flourished because she didn't force her way with fire. Mal's vision, Pyro's passion, Kyan's security, Jasper's organization, Alex's diplomacy, and Flint's odd wisdom had led them to the top. She'd cheered along with everyone else when they'd hit number one. They were a team. She almost belonged.
She was still frequently alone, but seeing her siblings every day at work was so much more interesting than waiting around to become the matriarch of an isolated Outer Rim estate. And she was so close to reaching the friendly trust she wanted. Even though she had occasional slip-ups like last night when her power showed.
Amber wished she could be angry — or excited, or passionate, or any emotion, really — without terrifying her brothers and destroying their fragile trust.
But all she could do was show up every day and prove herself.
So, she couldn't intimidate her brothers now. Not even in dress sense.
Amber pulled on muted clothes: a narrow beige tweed skirt, a pale cream blouse, and a subtle mauve scarf. Matching cream flats finished her outfit. She tucked her red hair into a twist, pushed in the straggling hair, and approved her image in the mirror.
Very soothing.
The lingerie tugged at her. She touched the garter belt. Fine red beading, neat orange stitches.
Sunrise.
Amber snapped the garter belt around her thigh, pulling it well above the hemline of her skirt. Its artful lace, soft frills, and beads made a secret thrill run through her.
The garter belt was beautiful. She was beautiful. Darcy thought it fitted her and he was right.
Another secret thrill followed the first.
That meant she should not wear it. She was already too powerful. Thinking about Darcy and his very unusual behavior while wearing his garter belt only pushed her power—
"Amber!" Mal snarled from her video monitor in the far office. He couldn't see her, but his voice echoed through her lair. "The meeting starts in five. Where are you?"
She slammed the lid on the box. "Coming!"
He didn't reply. Most likely he'd severed the connection without waiting for her answer.
She raced out of her lair, launched into the air, and crossed half the hemisphere to the Onyx Corporation head office in a field outside Vancouver, Washington. Amber descended the glass tube affixed to the building and opened the transparent doorway into her office.
Their cleaning lady, Rose, was on the other side polishing Amber's desk. At the ruffle of papers and click of the closing glass, she jumped in surprise. "Oh my goodness, you're flying."
"Good morning."
"Morning! You startled me." Rose pressed one glove-clad hand to her chest. The other touched her hair, which this month was braided into a new configuration against her skull. "Oh, goodness. I'll never get used to you dragons popping up when I think I'm in an empty room."
"Your hairstyle is very intricate." Amber paused to examine the skillful braids. "What's this one called?"
Rose's expression slipped to guarded. "Herringbone."
"It must take a lot of effort."
"But it's common enough." She grabbed the rag she'd thrown when she'd gotten startled and returned to polishing the mahogany. "I'm not making a special effort. Just a normal one."
Amber felt bad.
Rose hadn't started out nervous around them; she'd stunned them with snappy lines in her interview and had seemed as surprised by the dragon's questions as they'd been by her answers. But over the months she'd worked for them, she'd drawn in on herself and become guarded.
Well, fear was a normal reaction to being around a female dragon. Rose's natural reaction showed just how strange Darcy was.
He had to be teasing...
"It's nice." Amber grabbed her prepared budget files and headed for the office door.
"Oh. I—thanks. But I don't dress up for work!" Rose called after her as she traversed the hall. "My hair style's for me, all right?"
"Okay."
"Right." Rose frowned and focused on her task. "Dragons think I'm dressing up for them when all I'm trying to do is keep my head down and do my job..."
Amber passed through the busy floor traversing the hall between the cubicle walls and the dragon offices.
"Amber!" Mal hung out the open doorway. He saw her and his canines elongated as he roared. "Get in here!"
A small part of her heart warmed.
Mal was fearless. Thank goodness he'd found Cheryl.
After their clothing company had succeeded, the crotchety old Empress of Draconis had threatened to marry Mal (and take their company for herself). The threat had sent them into a panic to find Mal a wife. Never mind the fate of their company, the Empress would have eviscerated Mal for insubordination before they'd finished their wedding vows.
Amber squeezed past her oldest brother and walked around the conference table filled with the rest of her sibling officers. There were more absences than usual.
Flint, their youngest genius brother, was always absent. He was busy somewhere, like on an asteroid orbiting Jupiter, doing something. Probably it was important. He needed space to think. A lot of space for a lot of thinking.
Alex, the next youngest, had been granted the occasional visitation to the family estate, and so she'd spent the most time growing up near him. His unusual two-tone Alexandrite scales made him a rare beauty. In human form, his impeccable white-blond hair was neat, his gray suit was crisp, and his eyes—one turquoise, the other lavender—were full of secrets.
He nodded to her, and she returned the polite greeting.
Jasper, her steadiest brother, was the fifth sibling and Chief of Operations. She took her seat beside him.
He passed her a mug filled with dark liquid. "Try this new roasting of your favorite coffee bean. If you like it, I can make it into an apple pie iced mocha."
"Thank you." She sipped the steaming brew. The familiar sharp caffeine bit back with a smoky char that both hurt her mouth and was evocative of Draconis. "Mm, this coffee is unusual."
"I thought you would like it, so I refilled your espresso cabinet with this blend."
"Yes, nice find, Jasper."
He sat back and laced his fingers in his lap, pleased. "Work improves when everyone has the proper tools."
"Very wise." She enjoyed the harsh liquid.
On her other side, her older brother Kyan's chair was empty. The secretive security officer had traded in his black ops work to keep the family safe. He was on his honeymoon.
At the end of the room, the wall screen turned on as Pyro, the second-oldest, called in from their extension at Carnelian Clothiers. Aristocrat Sard Carnelian, recalled to Draconis to marry his dragon fiancée, had defied tradition by merging their companies under Pyro's low caste rule — on the condition that Pyro would treat his employees, fallen aristocrat dragons, well. The transition had been rocky at the start but Pyro had stepped up from his radioactive bad boy image to emerge a scrappy leader. It helped that he had a human wife, Amy, and he was devoted to her. Several of the fallen also had human wives or girlfriends. Earth was special because more united than divided the two dragon castes.
Pyro's Vice President chair at the Onyx Corporation was supposed to be filled by Sard's younger brother, Chrysoberyl Carnelian, as part of the merger. But after being caught trying to bomb Earth for no reason, Chrysoberyl had been exiled to orbit. His video screen remained blank.
Mal snapped at his intercom to Chrysoberyl's luxury ship. "Hurry up! The meeting's started."
"You will not hurry a
dragon of my importance, low caste—"
Mal released his finger from the communicator, cutting off Chrysoberyl's response. "No more lateness! Now that Amber's finally here, we'll start."
Amber shuddered. If she'd never researched her family history and her siblings, she, too, might have turned into an entitled, self-important slug-like Chrysoberyl.
Cheryl, Mal's shy wife, smiled at Amber greeting. She sketched a cute baby dragon onto a napkin with a chewed pencil. Mal had outlawed her from drawing on her electronic tablet during the meetings because she would escape into her art and forget to pay attention. But as her napkin sketching proved, he could hide the tools, but he couldn't hide the artist.
Mal grunted. "Amber. First order of business is you."
Amber opened her file to spread her budget reports. "Our next product launch budget is prepared."
"Of course it is. But today's highest priority is the status of the Dragon-Human Treaty and your unprovoked violent attack on a human."
Everyone froze.
Oh. Of course. She brushed her sweaty palms on her skirt. "I apologize."
Everyone exhaled at once, causing a soft sigh to fill the conference room. That was a sign of their terror. They feared her.
Except Mal. "Although your apology is pointless, I hope it embarrasses you enough that you never lose control again. Through a heroic effort, Alex convinced the ambassador you were acting in what Darcy called 'self-defense.' Good job, Alex."
Alex nodded again. The dark circles under his eyes said he'd gotten less sleep than she had.
"And good job to Darcy for thinking up such a creative response. But you, Amber. You shouldn't have been on your own. If the treaty breaks, we're leaving Earth. It's not a choice. Chrysoberyl's uncle declares martial law and our company ends."
Cheryl squeezed her hands together, her cheeks white.
Mal rubbed his wife's shoulders and glared at Amber. "Think before you lose your temper."
"I got surprised."
"That's still your fault." Mal jerked his thumb at Pyro's screen. Behind Pyro stood the chief of security for Carnelian Clothiers, the impervious sunglasses-clad Syenite. "Syen tried to watch over you as Kyan used to. You refused."